Schools that Excel 2025: Find out your school’s VCE results over the past decade

But not all schools cater to students who are aiming for a place at university, and the Schools that Excel dashboard reflects this – you can also see how students enrolled in VET programs fared.

What does the dashboard show?

The information about each school is divided into several panels. Here is a guide to interpreting the data:

Average student performance shows the median VCE subject study score for the school since 2015, which is a good indicator of typical student achievement. Study scores are out of 50, and a 30 is the average. The horizontal line at 30 on the graph is the yardstick that shows how the typical student at this school fares against the statewide average.

The interactive does not show median ATARs because this data is not available for the past decade for each school.

High achievers shows the percentage of the school’s VCE subject scores that were among the best in the state. These are scores of 40 or above, which put students within the top 10 per cent of all those who completed that VCE subject. This panel also shows the subjects in which students obtained the best results.

Completion rates shows the enrolment numbers in VCE and VET over the past five years, as well as the satisfactory completion rates among year 12s. Unfortunately, data was not released on VET completion rates in 2021, which is highlighted in the interactive.

VCE VM and VPC provides data on the new VCE Vocational Major and the Victorian Pathways Certificate programs, which were implemented in schools to replace the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) from 2023. The data shows whether the vocational major or pathways certificate were offered at a school and how many year 12 students completed either stream. And while VCAL has been phased out, the interactive displays enrolment and completion data for it from 2020-2022.

In addition, changes to VCAL – due to the VCE Vocational Major and the Victorian Pathways Certificate being phased in from 2023 – also mean that there were far fewer VCAL enrolments in 2023.

Student pathways shows what 2023’s year 12 graduates were doing midway through 2024 – whether they had gone on to further study at university or TAFE, or whether they had taken on an apprenticeship or joined the workforce. This data is from the Department of Education’s annual On Track survey. Survey results data is not available for all schools, so this panel has been greyed if a low percentage of a school’s year 12 graduates participated in the study. The survey of 2024’s graduates is still being carried out, so 2023 is the latest year for which data is available.

School awards shows five high-gain schools that The Age judged as having shown the best improvement in their VCE results over the past decade. One school was selected from Melbourne’s south, east, north and west, as well as rural/regional Victoria. Starting this year, we are also recognising one school in Victoria that has shown improvement in its vocational education completion rates over the past five years.

Which schools are featured in the dashboard?

The interactive dashboard features data on more than 500 Victorian schools that offered year 12 subjects in 2023.

It also includes schools that were classified by the VCAA as “small”, for having enrolments below a certain threshold. A dialogue box will pop up in the interactive if you enter the name of a small school to flag that its performance may not be comparable with larger schools and that it may not be possible to observe a trend in results over the 10-year time frame.

If a school has few students, it means the median and its percentage of study scores of 40 or above can fluctuate greatly year-on-year depending on the cohort.

Which schools do not feature in the interactive?

Schools for which there is insufficient data, schools that exclusively offer the International Baccalaureate, and adult education institutions do not show up in the interactive.

There might also be gaps in the data for years in which student enrolments did not reach a certain threshold.

How were the Schools that Excel awards decided?

We used Department of Health boundaries to categorise schools as metropolitan or regional and divided the metropolitan region into west, north, east and south Melbourne.

We previously selected one government school and one non-government (Catholic or independent) school for each area, but starting this year, we are acknowledging one school from each region, which can be either government or non-government.

Schools in each region were chosen based on their records of improvement for median VCE study scores, while the winner for the new vocational education category was chosen based on improvement in VET completion rates

Schools that Excel winners 2025

• Eastern Melbourne: Forest Hill College
• Southern Melbourne: Brighton Grammar School
• Western Melbourne: Mount Alexander 7-12 College
• Northern Melbourne: St Mary’s Coptic Orthodox College
• Regional and Rural Victoria: Bacchus Marsh Grammar
• Vocational: Lakes Entrance Secondary College

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